20 Chapter Twenty - A Time To Rest

"W… Why the flinching?", the woman asked with a hint of confusion in her voice, "Am I ugly…?"

"Not at all, I was just surprised to see a cyclops in front of me.", the boy answered and Emalia kicked the boy in the shin, "Why?!"

"Insensitive idiot."

"What else was I supposed to say, you royal pain-in-the-ass!?"

The woman let out a quiet laugh and the mood relaxed. The three of them sat at a table in the inn's small cafeteria at the request of the cyclops woman. The mood was awkward and he crossed his arms while waiting for her to speak up.

"Why do you want me to stop going after the Generals?"

"We cyclops have a strange ability. One that happens every night after we drift off into sleep. The Goddess has blessed us, or cursed us, with the ability to dream about a possible near future."

"I have heard about that from some adventurers back in Woodland. Those dreams usually range from things that can happen in the next day to events that can happen months or years from now, right?"

"Yes. It's nice to know other people are interested in us.", the woman smiled, "But that's not why I'm here today!"

"Indeed, you want me to stop chasing the Generals. Why?"

"A few days ago, I had a dream. A dream where I wasn't the main focus. Instead, there were four people there."

"Four people, yet you called for us three.", the girl said while scratching her chin.

"One of them mentioned how excited they were for going on adventures, so I assumed they hadn't been there for long. I took a gamble when I asked for three instead of two and you proved my luck to be good, Emalia."

"The dream, Miss."

"Yes! The four of you were walking through what seemed like a mountain. There was no one else there but you four. It was a peaceful dream. Yet… Yet what I saw moments later was everything but peaceful. A hole just… appeared out of nowhere."

"A hole?"

"Through your stomach, Cyrus. You were projected backwards and fell on the floor with a hole through your stomach. I saw you bleed out and die right before my eyes and…"

"That's… That's horrible. Cyrus!"

"You want me to stop going after the Generals so I don't die, is that it?"

"Exactly. On my way over to Rosaria, I kept having dreams surrounding you four. I saw future events in your life, the places you will visit and… I saw bits of Emalia's life at her castle, bits of Artemis' life at her settlement and… I saw what happened to your village. I have no idea why, but I dreamed about the past of you three."

"So you know what happened to me. Good for you."

"I think we should take a moment to think about what we just heard, Cyrus.", the princess asked, "It's too much information dumped on us like that."

"I apologize if I said too much, but I don't want such young people to die so soon."

"Why us in specific? Are cyclops going around and telling people their future? When they'll die or who they'll marry or whatever the fuck they're going to eat for dinner?!"

"Cyrus, calm down!", the princess ordered and the boy sighed.

"I'm not trusting someone that just showed up out of nowhere and claimed to see me die in a dream, no matter who they are.", the boy affirmed as he stood up. He picked up the few bags they had, "For all I know, you could be working for a General."

The mood around those three grew awkward and the woman didn't say anything, instead looking down with a defeated look on her face. He was right, she had just shown up and began spouting about seeing the boy die, she had no way to prove she was speaking the truth about his future.

"Cyrus, I don't think marching into your death is the right choice."

"Your friend is right. Cyrus…"

"With all due respect, Miss, what I do is none of your business.", the boy interrupted the woman before turning himself around, "If you truly saw my past and what happened to my village, then you should know why I'm walking the path I am on. I'm going back to the room."

"Cyrus, just wait a minute!"

"I'm not giving up now, Emalia. I thought at least you would know that by now."

The boy walked out of that room and climbed up the stairs, leaving the field of vision of the two still sitting at that table. The cyclops woman sighed and Emalia crossed her arms.

"That goddamn idiot. I'm sorry for his rude behavior, he's not usually like this."

"I dreamt with this exact moment, you know?", the woman said, "We cyclops don't dream about exact futures, but possible futures. While they aren't always connected, I'm afraid that this interaction may have sealed that boy's fate. I wonder if this really was the best course to take… Should I have remained silent? If I had remained silent, would that change the future I saw? I… I don't want him to die because I decided to tell him what would happen, Emalia. But at the same time, I don't want him to die because I didn't do anything at all."

"I know some people don't like having their future revealed to them, even if they're not exact. I don't know if telling him his future was the right choice or not, but I know that Cyrus isn't an easy person to kill.", the girl affirmed with a smile, "That boy has a goal and I'm sure even death won't deter him. In fact, death might make him stronger and that's a scary thought."

"Seeing him turn into a revenant wouldn't be something you'd be okay with, right?"

"I'm sure neither Artemis nor I would want to see our friend turn into a revenant."

"I must apologize, Emalia."

"For what?"

"Telling you all of this made him get mad at you."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'll deal with that grumpy idiot later. It's getting late, you should be going back home."

"I'm… actually renting a room at this inn. My boss really wanted me to find you three."

"Your boss?"

"Yes. Despite her… looks and personality, she's a caring woman that wants to change the world for the better. Even if… her methods are weird. I'm not really good at anything and I wasn't helping in my town, so I decided to leave and find something I could do. She took me in when I was starving during my travels."

"What's it like?", the curious girl asked, "A town filled with cyclops, that is."

"It's a fun place to live in, not much different than any random town you can find. Everyone's so nice and they help each other all the time."

"If they help each other, why did you leave?"

"I…", the woman whispered before covering her face with her hands. Emalia thought for a second that she had said something weird, but the woman continued, "I was very young and not the brightest of the bunch."

The princess reached over and patted the cyclops' shoulder with a "there, there" and the embarrassed woman kept shaking her head. She reassured her that "we've all been there sometime, miss" and soon, the cyclops woman had calmed herself down. Emalia decided to return to her room and the cyclops woman had the same idea. The princess walked up to the second floor and opened the door to her room, coming across a sleepy Artemis slowly eating from one of the boxes they had. She looked around for signs of the boy, but she couldn't find him. Artemis said she was woken up by him and doesn't remember where he went or what he said, but that she assumed he said the food was for her. Artemis kept eating the meat from the foods that had her name on the package and Emalia noticed she was pushing the vegetables to the side.

"Don't you like vegetables?", the girl asked and the beastfolk girl shook her head slowly. She crossed her arms and Artemis felt the pressure of a mother around her, "I distinctly remember you saying the cooked vegetables that the Elder's wife made were delicious, no?"

"Those veggies are different from these, though."

"Veggies are veggies, Artemis. Come on, eat them to grow healthy and strong."

"I'm not a child, Emalia…!"

"Only children don't like eating their veggies. You're not a child, are you?"

"I… am.", she sighed.

"Make up your mind, Artemis. Are you or are you not a child?"

"I'm not a child for anything! Other than vegetables, that is, they're bland!"

"Have you thought about putting some vegetables and meat in your mouth at the same time?", she asked and a silence appeared for a few seconds. Artemis' expression slowly contorted from confusion to disbelief, "Try it out, Artemis. If it tastes bad, then I'll eat them."

She stabbed through a piece of cauliflower and then through a piece of meat, doing as the taller girl had said. She put them in her mouth and chewed slowly with a content hum, slowly pulling the box she had away from the princess.

"Well?"

"It's awful, but I'm still eating it."

"You're stubborn, you know?"

Emalia ruffled the girl's hair and the moon rose higher and higher into the sky. As time went on, the two girls fell asleep in their larger and more comfortable bed. Morning had come and the boy left the bathroom after taking a bath, acting like nothing had happened the night before and ignoring the princess' glares. They went over to Clark's shop, to check up on the gear. To the right of the store were some stairs that lead down a room with a large furnace, an anvil, a tank of cold water and many other important tools for a man on that business. Inside of that room was the man in question, hammering away at a bright piece of metal.

"You kids are here early, huh? Second time that happens.", the man laughed while never shifting focus from the metal. The loud pangs of the hammer echoed around them and the man cleaned the sweat from his forehead, "You're gonna have to forgive me, but Artemis' daggers are taking longer than I had hoped."

The group nodded and walked out of the shop, now going towards the alchemist couple's house. They knocked on the door and the husband opened it, telling them to "come in, make yourselves at home" while his wife worked at the cauldron. When they asked the man what he was doing, he let out a long, exaggerated sigh that worried them.

"My wife took over the cauldron and doesn't let me do anything. Says she's having a bit of trouble with the current recipe she's thinking of and that she may take longer than she had expected, so for the next week or so, I'm as good as a jobless man. Maybe I should try to learn how to knit now."

"Sorry, dear, but you know how it is. And sorry, sweetie, but I promise you the end result is going to be amazing, just you wait.", she exclaimed.

Artemis nodded at the woman and the trio walked out of the house, now walking towards the adventurer's establishment in order to find a job or two they could do. Yet… There was no particular job they could do, because there weren't any jobs affixed on the job board. It would seem they now had some downtime to rest and relax. The smaller girl laid down on the large bed and yawned, which surprised the princess.

"What do we do?", she asked and Emalia shrugged. The door to the room closed and they noticed he had left, "What's up with him?"

"Well…"

"Did you do something to him?"

"I did. Well, I didn't do something, I said something."

"Then why not apologize? I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt him."

"I have tried, but he has been ignoring me the whole morning."

"Have you tried talking to him instead of glaring?"

"I… haven't.", the princess sighed, "I was mad at him and he apologized after thinking it through, yet now that he's mad at me, I've done nothing but throw glares and hope he'd say something."

"From what I've seen, it seems like one of you is always mad at the other.", Artemis nodded her head and the princess ruffled her hair. While she enjoyed it, she quickly continued, "You don't have to put yourself down, Emalia, but you need to be a bit more forceful with the type of guy that Cyrus is."

"You talk as if you have experience on the matter."

"Believe it or not, I've had my fair share of fooling around some years ago."

"How old are you, Artemis?", Emalia asked with a very noticeable hint of concern in her voice.

The girl with the fluffy ears sported a large smirk on her lips and didn't answer the princess' question, instead motioning to the door as a way of telling the girl to "go do what you need to do". Emalia nodded and decided to go look for the boy while still curious as to Artemis' age.

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His right foot was tapping on the wooden floor beneath him as he stared at a blank sheet of paper and held an inked pen, tapping the opposite end of it against his chin. Part of the feather happened to brush against his nose and he sneezed while the lady at the inn's counter snorted and cleared her throat. He leaned back against the chair he sat on and focused on a spot in the ceiling. A few minutes went by and he could feel that woman peek at him every now and again and during one of those times, he caught her peeking. The boy sighed and placed the pen on top of the paper before standing up and leaving the inn. He walked through the village for a while and soon left it. He wasn't going to travel too far, but he felt like he needed to walk for a while. To clear his head and gather his thoughts, as well as to figure out what to do next. He sat down under a tree and leaned against it. The cool shadow was refreshing and the breeze against his face was nice. Everything was peaceful and calm. At least for the first couple of minutes. Soon, he began hearing footsteps closing in and stopping in front of him, then moving to the left and to the right. The boy moved his head a bit and the source of the footsteps let out a soft, scared squeal and he opened his eyes. In front of him was a girl with pure white hair parted at the top and eyes as black as obsidian. The girl's sundress waved as the breeze crossed by and he noticed she was staring directly at him.

"It's dangerous out here.", the girl's angelic voice said.

"That's my line, kid. What are you doing here?", the boy asked.

"Who knows. I don't, that's for sure."

"Who are you?"

"I wish I knew. Who are you?", she asked and the boy expressed confusion. Yet her expectant stare wouldn't go away, "Do you not have a name as well?!"

"I do, but why should I tell it to a complete stranger?"

"Anyone is a complete stranger at first, right? Then I'm as complete a stranger as your uncle or your aunt when you first met them. Therefore, I have as much of a right to be told your name as any of them!"

"Your logic makes no sense. In any case, you should leave before anything bad happens."

"Why would something bad happen? As far as I can tell, we are the only ones around these parts at the moment.", the girl said while looking around, using her hands as make-shift binoculars, "So on that note, what's your name?"

"You're persistent. Where are you parents?"

"Parents…? What are those?"

"The people that brought you to this world?"

"Oh! She's up there!"

She pointed at the sky and the boy's confusion was growing in intensity. The girl tapped her chin a couple of times before leaning over the boy and staring him straight in the eyes. Weirdly, the girl's stare seemed to be peering into the depths of the boy's soul and that was leaving him with a sense of discomfort, so he averted his eyes. Yet… he didn't. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't avert his eyes from hers and a soft smile grew on this strange girl's lips. He flicked her forehead and she took a step back, turning herself around before looking up at the sky, rubbing her forehead as discreetly as she could. The boy breathed in rather harshly and stood up from his spot. This strange girl walked around Cyrus as if she was evaluating him and then stopped at his right. She crossed her arms and nodded her head a few times while smiling once more.

"I'm glad you're the first person I've met, you know?", she said.

"What? How am I the first person you've met?"

"But sadly, that's all from me for now. Don't miss me too much, alright? Take care of yourself and treasure your friends, Cyrus."

"Hey!"

The girl walked around the tree that was behind Cyrus, disappearing behind it. He walked around the tree like the girl did and she wasn't there. It wasn't possible for her to have climbed the tree without any sound, nor would it have been possible for her to hide somewhere else in the time it took him to look for her. She was nowhere to be seen, yet her giggle echoed around him and several shivers climbed his spine, so he did the most sensible thing and walked out of that place and back into the village. Back into the inn, to finish what he had started, or tried, some time ago. Back at the inn, he noticed the table he was sitting at was unoccupied, save for a meddlesome girl, and the woman at the counter told the boy she had asked the other patrons not to sit there. He thanked her and slowly made his way over to the table, trying to ignore the girl's smile and stare. He sat down and picked up the feather pen once more, looking down at the paper. A minute went by, then two, then three, and the girl snatched the pen from the boy's hand.

"Hey!"

"So you can talk, that's good to know.", the girl smiled.

"What do you want?"

"I'm going to teach you the alphabet and then how to write."

"I'm not illiterate!"

"I know, Cyrus. But if it gets you to talk, then I'm going to mock you."

"Again, what the hell do you want?"

"I want to talk to you."

"Tough luck, I don't feel like talking to you right now."

"Tough luck, that wasn't a question for you to answer me.", the girl replied and the boy stood up from his seat, "Cyrus, wait."

"I won't. You've said what you had to say yesterday."

"I didn't because you left before I could say what I wanted to say."

"Tough luck, your Highness."

The boy walked out of the inn and the girl sighed. Peeking through the corner was the woman at the counter, who was having some fun watching those two and the way they interacted, but she felt like she had to do something.

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